Beverage preparation machines are well known in the food science and consumer goods area. Such machines allow a consumer to prepare at home a given type of beverage, for instance a coffee-based beverage, e.g. an espresso or a brew-like coffee cup.
Today, most beverage preparation machines for in-home beverage preparation comprise a system made of a machine which can accommodate portioned ingredients for the preparation of the beverage. Such portions can be soft pods or pads, or sachets, but more and more systems use semi-rigid or rigid portions such as rigid pods or capsules. In the following, it will be considered that the beverage machine of the invention is a beverage preparation machine working a rigid capsule.
The machine comprises a receptacle for accommodating said capsule and a fluid injection system for injecting a fluid, preferably water, under pressure into said capsule. Water injected under pressure in the capsule, for the preparation of a coffee beverage according to the present invention, is preferably hot, that is to say at a temperature above 70° C. However, in some particular instances, it might also be at ambient temperature. The pressure inside the capsule chamber during extraction and/or dissolution of the capsule contents is typically about 1 to 6 bar for dissolution products, 2 to 12 bar for extraction of roast and ground coffee. Such a preparation process differs a lot from the so-called “brewing” process of beverage preparation—particularly for tea and coffee, in that brewing involves a long time of infusion of the ingredient by a fluid (e.g. hot water), whereas the beverage preparation process allows a consumer to prepare a beverage, for instance coffee within a few seconds.
The principle of extracting, infusing, and/or dissolving the contents of a closed capsule under pressure is known and consists typically of confining the capsule in a receptacle of a machine, injecting a quantity of pressurized water into the capsule, generally after piercing a face of the capsule with a piercing injection element such as a fluid injection needle mounted on the machine, so as to create a pressurized environment inside the capsule either to extract the substance or dissolve it, and then release the extracted substance or the dissolved substance through the capsule. Capsules allowing the application of this principle have already been described for example in applicant's European patent n° EP 1 472 156 B1, and in EP 1 784 344 B1.
Machines allowing the application of this principle have already been described for example in patents CH 605 293 and EP 242 556. According to these documents, the machine comprises a receptacle for the capsule and a perforation and injection element made in the form of a hollow needle comprising in its distal region one or more liquid injection orifices. The needle has a dual function in that it opens the top portion of the capsule on the one hand, and that it forms the water inlet channel into the capsule on the other hand.
The machine further comprises a fluid tank—in most cases this fluid is water—for storing the fluid that is used to dissolve and/or infuse and/or extract under pressure the ingredient(s) contained in the capsule. The machine comprises a heating element such as a boiler or a heat exchanger, which is able to warm up the water used therein to working temperatures (classically temperatures up to 80-90° C.). Finally, the machine comprises a pump element for circulating the water from the tank to the capsule, optionally though the heating element. The way the water circulates within the machine is selected via a selecting valve means, such as for instance a peristaltic valve of the type described in applicant's European patent application EP 2162653 A1.
When the beverage to be prepared is coffee, one interesting way to prepare the said coffee is to provide the consumer with a capsule containing roast and ground coffee powder, which is to be extracted with hot water injected therein.
Capsules have been developed for such an application, which are described and claimed in applicant's European patent EP 1 784 344 B1, or in European patent application EP 2 062 831.
In short, such capsules comprise typically:                a hollow body and an injection wall which is impermeable to liquids and to air and which is attached to the body and adapted to be punctured by e.g. an injection needle of the machine,        a chamber containing a bed of roast and ground coffee to be extracted,        an aluminum membrane disposed at the bottom end of the capsule, closing the said capsule, for retaining the internal pressure in the chamber, the said membrane being associated with piercing means for piercing dispensing holes in the said aluminum membrane when said internal pressure inside the chamber reaches a certain pre-determined value,        optionally, means configured to break the jet of fluid so as to reduce the speed of the jet of fluid injected into the capsule and distribute the fluid across the bed of substance at a reduced speed.        
Beverage preparation machines and capsules as described above, for many of them, are designed to give the consumer the choice of preparing the beverage he likes amongst a whole range of beverage products.
In the range of beverages that is proposed to the consumer, some correspond to large cups typically having a volume of 200 ml or above, for instance Caffee Crema Grande, latte macchiatos, cappuccinos, chococinos, American brew-like coffees, or the like. Some other beverages correspond to mid-size cups typically between 100 and 200 ml, like for instance teas, herbal infusions, Chai tea, tea latte, or chocolate-based preparations such as Nesquik®. Finally, some correspond to small serving size, typically below 100 ml, such as for instance espressos, ristretto, or cortado coffee.
Some prior art beverage preparation systems are further described for instance in Applicant's EP 1878368 A1. In this document, the beverage production machine comprises:                a functional block including a beverage extraction module and a beverage delivery outlet, and        a support base on which the functional block is arranged and which is designed to supply the functional block electrically, wherein at least the beverage delivery outlet is mounted free in rotation around a vertical axis relative to the support base.        
Another prior publication of the applicant is EP 1731065 A1 which discloses a beverage machine comprising a drip tray device that can accommodate recipients of different heights. The drip tray device is formed of a collect tank and has a first drip support grid removably mounted on the tank for holding short recipients and has a second drip support for longer recipients such as a glass. The whole device is removable for ease of emptying and rinsing. In a possible mode, the first removable grid is provided with a gutter to evacuate liquid in a main collect reservoir.
Another prior publication is DE 20 48 163 A1 to Wuerttenbergische Metallwarenfabrick, which discloses The beverage machine is provided with a dosing valve which is electrically controlled by a selector switch which in turn is controlled by a sensing mechanism which is influenced by at least one feature of the receptacle which is to be filled with the beverage. Through this sensing mechanism the control of the selector switch automatically follows in dependence on each capacity of the receptacle so that no errors regarding overfilling or under filling can occur. The sensing mechanism can operate according to the shape e.g. height or weight of the receptacle. The sensing mechanism preferably has at least one sensing element movably mounted above the stand for the receptacle so that it is compressed when a larger receptacle.
The beverage preparation machines disclosed in the above cited prior publications are either rather basic (although they offer a few consumer-friendly features, like the possibility to rotate the machine across a stand, or the possibility to adjust the height of the cup tray), or alternatively very complex when aiming at offering more complex features and consumer benefits.
A constant issue with known machines is that the distance between the cup tray (or drip tray) and the beverage dispensing outlet of the extraction head is often not adapted to the cup size that is chosen by the consumer. Particularly, this distance is often too large. As a result, beverage liquid may splash during dispensing, which is of course undesirable.
Moreover, most machines on the market do not adapt the volume of dispensed liquid, depending on the type of beverage that was selected, so that the consumer has to manually adapt the volume, without knowing exactly what is appropriate.
As a result, the consumer may over-dilute the beverage, or on the contrary, she/he may stop the dispensing operation too early, such that the beverage will be too concentrated in cup.
In order to solve the splashing issue, most machines are equipped with a cup/drip tray that is adjustable in height. Height position of the tray may be continuous, or be a step-by-step mechanism. In all known systems, handling and setting of the cup tray is uneasy, and certainly, user-friendliness of such systems can be improved.
In order to solve the dispensing volume issue, known machines have been developed with semi-automated or automated adaptation of in-cup volume depending on the beverage type.
In some simple semi-automated systems, like in Nespresso® machines, at least two push buttons are placed on the machine, each button corresponding to a volume, e.g. one button for short cups, and the other for long cups. In some instances, the volume associated to each button can be programmed. However, in such systems, the volume associated to each push button is fixed, be it set in the factory or manually programmed by the consumer. The variety of possible dispensing volumes is limited in such systems, and re-programming the volume for each button is fastidious. In such systems, the splashing issue described above is not solved.
In some other semi-automated systems like Nescafé Dolce Gusto® Creativa® systems, the machine comprises an in-built computer program that is linked to a control panel and display. Using the control panel and display, the consumer chooses the name of the beverage into the machine, which corresponds to the type of beverage capsule she/he will insert into the machine. The machine then adapts automatically some preparation parameters like water temperature or dispensing volume. In such systems, the splashing issue described above is not solved.
Finally, in some other, more complex but fully automated systems, the machine comprises a capsule-recognition device, so that the machine automatically detects which type of beverage capsule is inserted therein, and the machine automatically adapts its preparation parameters. However, such systems require sensors and program in the machine to detect and read which type of capsule is inserted, which make such machines expensive. Additionally, the detection of capsules requires a specific marking—e.g. colour, magnetic, RFID chip, barcode, or similar—which adds to the cost. At the same type, such systems do not adapt the cup tray position, hence do not solve the splashing issue.
There is therefore a need for a beverage preparation system that obviates the drawbacks mentioned above, and is inexpensive, user-friendly, allows to adapt the cup position relative to the dispensing outlet of the machine, and allows the machine to automatically adapt some of the preparation parameters and at least the in-cup beverage volume that is dispensed.